Tu B'Shvat Sedarim

Last Shabbos was Tu B’shvat and I have been hearing that in more secular circles they hold a Tu B’shvat Seder. While I have never been to one before, I have been trying to imagine just what a Tu B’shvat Seder would include. After much pondering, I came up with a list of customs and rituals that I feel certain are observed by those who conduct Tu B’shvat Sederim.

1) Early in the Seder, participants fill their cups to the top with wine. Later on, they dip their finger into the wine seven times, to symbolize the 7 fruits of the land Israel, Wheat (Chitah), Barley (Seorah), Grape (Gefen), Fig (Ti’aynah), Pomegranate (Rimon), Olives (Zayis) and (Date) Honey (D’vash Timarim).

Rabbi Yehuda would combine their initials into acronyms:

D”SCh G”RTZ

2) It is customary to tell over the story of Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar Ben Azariyah, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon who were in Bnei Brak. One year they got so caught up in planting trees that they continued doing it all night until their students came and said, “Our Rabbis! The time for reciting the morning Shema has arrived!”

3) Some have the custom to put a potted plant in the center of the table. The plant is watched closely and if anyone notices that it has grown at all during the seder, they remark that Eliyahu Hanavi must have been there.

4) Some recite a paragraph in remembrance of the Holy Temple in compliance with Hillel. Hillel had a custom in the time that the Beis Hamikdash was standing. He used to wrap crushed grapes and wheat and eat them together. (Some of the frummer among us are extra careful that their children follow this custom year ‘round. In order to be yotzei according to all shitahs they send their children to school on a regular basis with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.)